Good news everybody!
For those of you living in San Jose, CA and similar latitudes, as of Monday March 13 at 1:10 pm the sun will reach 50 degrees above the horizon, which is when UVB sun rays can penetrate our atmosphere.
What does that mean to us?
Sun rays contain ultra violet lights such as UVA, UVB, and very little UVC. Out of the UVA, B, and C rays, UVB comprises for about 3% of the rays that even reach earth’s surface. UVB rays are of particular interest, because they stimulate our skin to create vitamin-d. This 3% of rays consisting of UVB, only reaches earth’s surface when the sun is at least 50 degrees above our horizon (the higher the sun the longer the UVB exposure).
Beginning tomorrow, the sun will breach the 50 degree mark for 20 minutes, allowing UBV rays to reach us!
This is one of our favorite days of the year. We like to celebrate by getting out in the sun, and enjoying it’s rays while it is at least 50 degrees above the horizon. When we expose our skin to the sun for at least 10 minutes, we gain access to a huge health benefit (a daily dose of UVB rays to our skin, in order for our body to synthesize vitamin-d) just by being in the sun.
If you are in the US, you can look up your location at this website to see when UVB is available for you to convert to vitamin-d.
For San Jose, the window opens tomorrow Monday March 13th at 1:10 pm and closes at 1:30 pm.
Reference our vitamin-d article to learn more about why vitamin-d is crucial to your health.